Simple life, simple goals, simple thanks

[efdoucette]

Hi forum friends, let me explain:

Simple life: I retired at 55 and started to learn how to swim, 5 months in I found TI. Now 58.

Simple goals: My swim goal for 2012 is to swim 1 km continuous freestyle, speed not important. Today I swam 1 km continuous but with mixed strokes. My speed is slow but am learning to relax and improve technique. Still time to reach my goal before years end.

Simple thanks: Thanks to all participating forum members for advice and support. I thank Terry for championing this style, it's awesome and rather addictive.

Eric

[haschu33]

Hi efdoucette,

I started to learn how to swim (freestyle) at 55, and found TI. Now 58.
Not retired :-(((((((((

I think I had a goal of swimming 1500 m non-stop for this year - don't quite remember. But maybe I should go for it, the year is not passed yet.
I'll let you know...

[WFEGb]

Hi,

simple life? ('d like sometimes... not retired with 61, 18 months TI-endeavor).

Simple goals, quite good but not ever simply achieved. And when I'd give my allround swim tip: Relax this can become quite stressful. But relax, even if it takes a little longer to reach your goal.

Simple thanks. Yes, we should never forget the kind support we get from this forum.

Regards,
Werner

PS: Hi Haschu33 back in the forum. Did you get my personal email few weeks ago?

[westyswoods]

The acronym, Keep It Simple Stupid, for those who are not familiar, has become a major force in my life. Thirty plus years ago my life was a complex web of trying to figure it all out. Post getting clean and sober I found there not always need be complex solutions to challenges.

This last past year has presented its fair share of challenges and those goals I had set for swimming are now on hold. Last Saturday was my first time back in the pool after almost four week hiatus, swam Sunday and I will be leaving for the pool shortly.

My point being, the water has become my friend and over the past four years. Saturday it was forty plus minutes of thoughtful swimming with no mental or physical pain. I swam with purpose and fulfillment.

Ironically tonight I will be sharing the pool with a masters class. Every tenant I've learned the past years will be reinforced as I observe the masters participants. Not right or wrong, just not for me.

I wish I could articulate my feelings as to how much TI has given me, not necessarily in swimming terms, I just seem to fall short. This is meant to include all on this forum present and past.

A simple thank you seems inadequate, but that is all I have.

Swim Silent and Be Well
Westy

[terry]

Eric
Lovely post. Thank you for it.
A question: When you say mixed strokes can you be a bit more specific? What other strokes do you mix in with crawl? And how much of the overall 1km would you estimate is crawl? I.E. Can you maintain reasonably smooth form for, say, 7 x 25m lengths of crawl, then cruise a 25BK and resume crawl?

[efdoucette]

Originally Posted by terry

Eric
Lovely post. Thank you for it.
A question: When you say mixed strokes can you be a bit more specific? What other strokes do you mix in with crawl? And how much of the overall 1km would you estimate is crawl? I.E. Can you maintain reasonably smooth form for, say, 7 x 25m lengths of crawl, then cruise a 25BK and resume crawl?

Hi Terry, I'm not sure if you realize how supportive it feels to us when you just jump in to the forum and offer help, it's awesome, thank you.

Yesterday during my 1 km swim the "mixture" was crawl, breast and back float. (I'm subject to shoulder bursitis that prevents me from the arm recovery motion during backstroke, my shoulder just couldn't handle that motion, so I just kick).

I can hold form on crawl for 2 x 25m, at times 3 or 4 x 25m. It's the darn wall that makes it easy to stop the continuous crawl. I don't stop but I change stroke to either breast or backfloat for some meters then resume crawl. Overall I'd say that I swam 70% crawl, 20% breast, 10% backfloat.

Regards
Eric

[Mike from NS]

Originally Posted by efdoucette

Hi Terry, I'm not sure if you realize how supportive it feels to us when you just jump in to the forum and offer help, it's awesome, thank you.

Hi Eric, I agree with your comment 100%.

Have you made it to the Canada Games Centre pool yet? I hope to be there Friday at 8am .... at least the plan at present. Maybe I'll see you there some Friday morning.

(Amazing how so many of our "TI" stories are similar - as far as the age element goes!)

Mike

[haschu33]

Originally Posted by WFEGb

...

PS: Hi Haschu33 back in the forum. Did you get my personal email few weeks ago?

Thanks Werner, and No.?? Was it an email or a pm here on the forum?

[terry]

Originally Posted by efdoucette

I can hold form on crawl for 2 x 25m, at times 3 or 4 x 25m. Overall I'd say that I swam 70% crawl, 20% breast, 10% backfloat.

Eric
I get many of my best ideas for blog topics as a gift from posts and threads here on the Forum. It also helps me stay in touch with the thought process of TI students. Invaluable.

There are two ways to incrementally build distance, from being able to swim a single length to swimming a mile or even a marathon. Somewhere between 500m and 1km of continuous swimming, you'll find the groove where adding more distance becomes fairly easy.
There are generally two ways to get there.
1) Sets of shorter repeats. One of my favorite examples is
4 x 25
3 x 50
2 x 75
1 x 100
This adds up to 500. Doubling each distance gives you a 1000m set.
Rest between with a certain number of relaxing/cleansing breaths.

2) An 'interrupted' longer swim. You interrupt the longer swim whenever you feel your ease, sense of control -- or even keenness of focus -- breaking down. The interruption can consist of a taking a few yoga breaths at the wall or substituting a length or two of something that feels more restful -- or is a less exacting skill.

As your balance,stability and streamlining improve, your HR will remain moderate and you'll need fewer and briefer interruptions along the way. In time, you'll have progressed to a continuous longer swim. The key principle is that you continue to practice relaxed, smooth swimming. So when you complete your first mile, you feel you could do another!

There's nothing inherent to backstroke, or the recovery that should be stressful to your shoulder. IF you swim backstroke correctly. I.E. with balance, stability and streamline - the same foundation as Tireless Freestyle. I am completing an ebook on Easy Backstroke that we'll publish with embedded video illustration of each key step. We'll release in November.

[terry]

Here's an older blog post on this very topic.
http://www.swimwellblog.com/archives/1071/